The trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs got an update from their staff and encouragement from Mayor Charmaine Tavares Thursday on their part in the Na Wai Eha contested case.
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The state commission has been under orders to determine permanent stream flow standards for years, but it has been starved of money to do the scientific and cultural studies required to establish the standards.

Jonathan Scheuer, OHA’s director of land management, said the goal is to “have year-round flows from Puu Kukui and Mauna Kahalawai to the sea in Na Wai Eha (the four waters, the Waihee, Waikapu, Iao and Waiehu streams).

The county has joined Maui Tomorrow Foundation, Hui Na Wai Eha and OHA to force the commission to act. The defendants, the two businesses taking so much water out that the streams are no longer permanent, are Wailuku Water Co. and Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.

“It’s a huge case,” said Scheuer. The amounts of water dwarf the totals in the Waiahole Ditch case on Oahu.